The Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-0, with Mayor James Hodges abstaining, to grant four variances requested by the company.

Without the variances — for minimum lot size, lot width, side setbacks and landscaping — city planner Jay Kilpatrick called the long, narrow property “likely... unusable.”

The company, on the west bank of the Flat River between Main Street and the Kent County Fairgrounds, plans to spend $2.7 million on a 90-foot-tall building expansion and a new animal feed byproduct storage facility, plus $8.67 million on new load-out machinery and equipment that includes six multistory concrete flour storage bins.

In June, the city granted the 144-year-old company a 12-year tax abatement for the planned expansion that is expected to double the square footage — albeit largely upward — and allow the company to expand its customer base.